d3100 camera upgrade, what to get?

glaw89

glaw89

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talking to my hubby last night about buying a back-up camera for my d3100 (i am into weddings) and suggested the d40 as mentioned on a previous thread of mine. he said he would rather upgrade my d3100 and use that as a back up ... :love: got to love him.

so now my question is, with around £800 to spend what would you go for? as said i am into weddings and portraits so want something that will give me the most in that field. am i better off buying new or second hand with lens?
 
Have you considered the D5100 and maybe a 35mm f1.8 or 50mm f1.8 lens.

a d5100 body will set you back around £500 and the lens about £160 or £170.

this will leave some spare cash for a flash or something.
 
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The D3100 is a cracking camera and more than capable of producing fantastic images, it really is great - I love the one we've got at work and I love it and I usually use a D700!

In your situation you should really be looking at getting better lenses.
 
glaw89 said:
talking to my hubby last night about buying a back-up camera for my d3100 (i am into weddings) and suggested the d40 as mentioned on a previous thread of mine. he said he would rather upgrade my d3100 and use that as a back up ... :love: got to love him.

so now my question is, with around £800 to spend what would you go for? as said i am into weddings and portraits so want something that will give me the most in that field. am i better off buying new or second hand with lens?
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Or, sweet talk hubby into a nice shiny d700 AND some new glass, lets see you work them charms :lol:
 
Buy 2nd hand you will get more for your money.

I'd be looking at camera's like D90, D7000, D300 etc... and spend whatever you have left on nice prime and good flash. :)
 
I agree with Mank - all the camera's he mentions also have the built in focus motor so you don't need to buy more expensive AF-S lenses (where the focus motor is on the lens) if you want autofocus.

Lens example...
A Nikon 50mm f/1.8D can be had new for around £90 whereas a Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.8G can be had new for around £180. You pay an extra £90 if you need a lens with the motor on it.

I used to have a D60 but got fed up with the lens restrictions having to use AF-S lenses if I wanted autofocus, so I went for the D90 which allows me to buy older/cheaper (just as good optically) Nikon lenses that will autofocus.

If you don't mind manual focus then ignore everything I've said:lol:
 
Another idea would be getting 35 1.8G 2nd hand for around £120. 85mm 1.8G from digitalrev for around £390. Park cameras doing d3100 body only refurbed for around £300. £810 in total, the 35 on one d3100 and the 85 on the other d3100 :-)
 
R.Y.K. LEE said:
Another idea would be getting 35 1.8G 2nd hand for around £120. 85mm 1.8G from digitalrev for around £390. Park cameras doing d3100 body only refurbed for around £300. £810 in total, the 35 on one d3100 and the 85 on the other d3100 :-)
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I'm no expert, never even heard of bracketing before last month, but I know i want it eventually on an upgrade, and I'm not sure I'd be wanting to do weddings without it, just in case exposure was off. But, like I say, bit of a noob, so I'm sure another (better informed) opinion will be along shortly :lol:
Saying that, I do love my 3100, so I may learn more before I commit in the future :shrug:
 
Ah, didnt know it didnt have bracketing as I am using the d5100 which does :-D
 
BruceMo said:
I'm no expert, never even heard of bracketing before last month, but I know i want it eventually on an upgrade, and I'm not sure I'd be wanting to do weddings without it, just in case exposure was off. But, like I say, bit of a noob, so I'm sure another (better informed) opinion will be along shortly :lol:
Saying that, I do love my 3100, so I may learn more before I commit in the future :shrug:
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I'm not sure how much use bracketing would be for a wedding. You probably won't get much chance to take varying exposures so I think it'll be a case of fixing your exposure and leaving it there.

That said, some extra crispness at high iso wouldn't do you any harm so the D5100 and D7000 are worth considering but I think generally I agree with others that money spent on a corking lens might yield better results. I liked the 35mm and 85mm suggestion above.
 
Honestly, the D3100 is great at high ISO and I'd happily use it at ISO1600 (and personally I'm happy with 3200 for most things). Add a f/1.8 lens to that and you'd be getting exposures akin to using ISO12800 if you were using your kit lens at 50mm. You'd have to spend at least £3k to get a camera that will do that whereas a lens is only a couple of hundred tops!

If it were me I'd be looking at the primes already mentioned, a Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 and a decent bouncable flash.

Also, with respect, it really doesn't sound like you're at a stage in your photography where you need a back up body - chances are it would just end up sitting around not being used. This means (again!) investing in lenses is the much more sensible route as they will always work on whatever body you decide you want at a later date.
 
thank-you all for your suggestions, will be investing in a flash & 35mm prime lens very soon anyhow and will look into the other glass mentioned. after searching the net last night hubby wants to buy me the d700, but after reading this thread I am not sure whether i should tell him not to get the d700 and go for something like d7000/d300 and buy more lens & accessories? or shall i just go ahead with the d700?
 
Bite his hand off but be aware that none of your lenses will work with it. Well they will, but only at 5 megapixels.

Again, you'll need to invest in a load of decent lenses to get the best out of it.

However, the thing to go is get the AFD 50mm f/1.8 which can be had for under £100 and is an absolute belter of a lens. That'll keep you going until you research more lenses.
 
Like many have said here, I would definitely concentrate on building a decent lens collection first. Digital bodies come and go as the technology moves on. High iso of DX bodies have improved leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. Who knows, by the time you have built up that good set of lenses, mid range cameras might be so good you may not feel the need to pay the extra to go full frame. I have owned both Nikon and canon full frame but now shoot an entry level DSLR because the price to performance ratio suits me better. Before, I felt I had to have the best of the best. But now, there is nothing in my kit that I cannot replace for under 500 quid if I was to break it and need to buy a replacement fast on a small budget :-)
 
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